Protecting the natural heritage in the Maltese islands (8)

L-Għadira, Mellieħa

This saline marshland at l-Għadira, together with the adjacent sand dune system, is one of the few remaining habitats of this type in the Maltese islands. Besides its ecological value, this location is home to a considerable number of endemic and rare taxa. Three species of flora and 22 species of fauna have only been recorded at this location.

Qammieħ valley transports freshwater downhill from Il-Mejjieli to l-Għadira, thus sustaining the wetland's hydrological regime. Without this supply of water the wetland at Għadira would not exist. In 1978, the saline marshland at l-Għadira was declared a bird sanctuary and two years later habitat engineering works were carried out to transform the site to the present state. Before this intervention the wetland used to be a saline marshland that dried up during the summer months.

Today the brackish pool still becomes increasingly saline in summer but never dries out completely.

Mepa scheduled Għadira nature reserve, and a diverse assemblage of important habitat types within its surrounding environs, as per Government Notice No. 491/06 in the Government Gazette dated June 6, 2006.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Adrian Borg Cardona (on 26/11/09)

Have you noticed how lovely are all the pictures in these short articles? Why do they not show any flats or villas which MePA should be so proud of? Anyway, I do not trust MePA scheduling anything as thyis has no meaning at all. After all, that is what happened in Bahrija. There, The MEPA website cited the valley as a Special Area of Conservation for its ecological and scientific importance under the Habitats Directive. It clarified that the “Bahrija valley system supports typical watercourse vegetation and several rare and endangered species as well as endemic ones with a restricted distribution in the Maltese Islands.” Wied il-Bahrija watercourse is classified as “one of the most important freshwater habitats in the Maltese Islands.”

All 16 policies contemplated in the Structure Plan with respect to Rural Conservation Areas, to Areas of Scenic Value, to Areas of Agricultural Value, to Ecology and to Valleys are claimed to have been violated in the granting of the Bahrija permit. And the building goes on. SHAME on all those involved and those that look the other way.